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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000; 284:1650-1651.

PEOPLE CAN BUILD MUSCLE AT ANY AGE, BUT CHOOSE NOT TO

NEW YORK - Although age slows down the body's ability to bulk up with weight training, older people can still strengthen their muscles with regular workouts, researchers report. However, few older men and women do any kind of strength training. Two studies published in the August issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise show that while strength training benefits men and women of all ages, many Americans are having no part of it--or any exercise, for that matter.

In one study, researchers had 41 untrained men and women, aged 20 to 30 and 65 to 75, complete 9 weeks of leg-strengthening exercises. They then followed their strength losses through 31 weeks of "detraining."

The investigators found that men and women boosted their strength at equal rates during 9 weeks of weight training. Those aged 65 and older made smaller gains and lost strength more quickly after the program had ended, but they remained stronger than they had been at the study's start, according to researchers led by Dr. Ben F. Hurley of the University of Maryland in College Park. Despite this age difference, the findings show that older men and women can "respond well" to strength training, Hurley's team writes.

But few older people take up the challenge to shape up with weights, results of a second study show. In fact, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, found that the rate of strength training among Americans declines steadily through adulthood. Using survey data from nearly 44,000 adults, the team found that by the age of 75, 5 percent of men regularly strength trained, and only 1 percent of women did.

Dr. Carl J. Caspersen and his colleagues call these findings "quite disturbing" since such exercises can help keep older adults "functionally sound and out of nursing homes."

The news on younger adults and teens was not much better, however. Exercise rates began to decline at age 12, with steep drops between the ages of 15 and 18. While activity patterns remained steady throughout middle age for both sexes, women consistently exercised less often than men. Americans show "precipitous" drops in exercise rates during adolescence, followed by slower decreases in young adulthood, Caspersen's team writes. This pattern, the report indicates, is a major reason behind the "obesity epidemic" in the United States.

SOURCE: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2000; 32:1505-1512, 1601-1609.

Rob Wilkins is a Technical Sergeant in the US Air Force stationed at The Pentagon, Washington, DC. Wilkins is also a Special Assistant for the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) and a recent recipient of the IFBB Gold Medal. To contact Wilkins e-mail him at waaszup@yahoo.com.